The HP Catalyst Academy is a fresh approach to professional development for educators designed to address the growing global need for high quality STEMx teachers. The mini- courses are offered entirely online on a variety of learning platforms in order to reach a long-term goal of impacting hundreds of thousands of teachers around the world.

The mini-courses, led by world-class institutions, are designed for busy STEMx education professionals who are seeking continued learning. The mini-courses require approximately six to twelve hours of participants’ time over a four week period and are targeted to science, technology, engineering, mathematics and other 21st century disciplines taught by educators in grades six through sixteen. Teachers participating in the Catalyst Academy’s professional development offerings receive recognition for their accomplishments through digital badges and downloadable certificates.

“As part of the initial cohort of HP Catalyst Academy Fellows, we have had the opportunity to see how providing educators with these learning experiences can enhance their teaching practices,” said Samantha Adams Becker, NMC Senior Director of Communications and mini-course co-instructor with Holly Ludgate. “Our mini-course, ‘Applications of Social Media for STEMx Teaching,’ takes place in Facebook, which has enabled us to directly demonstrate to educators how they can leverage social media in cutting-edge ways.”

“There is a lot of excitement about the mini-courses being offered,” said Jim Vanides, Global Education Program Manager at HP. “These online experiences are a fun way to introduce teachers to classroom innovations that increase student interest and achievement in a variety of STEMx disciplines.”

The new HP Catalyst Academy Fellows will expand the current mini-course catalog with topics such as cultivating creativity, science inquiry, mathematical curiosity, augmented reality apps, digital literacy in the science classroom, learning games, and more. HP’s education partners, ISTE and the NMC, will work closely with the Fellows to develop these ideas into online professional learning experiences using “agile instructional design” principles that mirror lean start-up and agile software development.

Organizations from nine countries will receive $16,000 HP Catalyst Academy Fellows awards for each of the mini-courses they are developing:

The HP Catalyst Academy offers a catalog of free mini-courses for teachers interested in STEM-focused professional development at http://www.catalyst-academy.org.

*Note for Editors: For years we have referred to STEM education -- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math -- but in today's flat world the definition must be much broader. It must include disciplines like computer science, nanoscience and, biotech as well as critical skills such as collaboration, creativity, communication, problem solving, inquiry, computational thinking and global fluency. Thus, to expand the definition to encompass the wide range of skills and knowledge requisite for success in the high-tech world of work and global citizenship, the HP Catalyst Initiative has created the acronym, STEMx.

About ISTE
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders committed to empowering connected learners in a connected world. Home to ISTE’s annual conference and expo and the widely adopted ISTE standards for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, the association represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. For more information, visit iste.org.

About the New Media Consortium
The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international not-for-profit consortium of learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. For 20 years, the NMC and its members have dedicated themselves to exploring and developing potential applications of emerging technologies for learning, research, and creative inquiry. For more information on the NMC, visit http://www.nmc.org.